The Housing (Right to Buy) (Designated Rural Areas and Designated Regions) (England) (No 2) Order 2005

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order designates certain parishes in the districts of Mole Valley and Richmondshire as rural areas, and provides for each of those districts to be a designated region, for the purposes of section 157 of the Housing Act 1985 (“the Act”). Mole Valley is the designated region in relation to dwelling-houses in the parishes listed in Part 1 of the Schedule to the Order, and Richmondshire in relation to dwelling-houses in the parishes listed in Part 2 of the Schedule.

Where a dwelling-house in a designated rural area is sold under the right to buy, the vendor may—

(a) impose a covenant requiring its consent to any further disposal unless it is an exempted disposal under section 160 of the Act (that consent cannot be withheld if the disposal is to a person who has throughout the preceding 3 years had his only or principal home or place of work in a designated region which, or part of which, is comprised in the designated rural area) (section 157(3) of the Act); or

(b) reserve a right of pre-emption if the Secretary of State or, if the vendor is a housing association, the Housing Corporation, consents (section 156A(8) of the Act as inserted by section 188 of the Housing Act 2004).

Similar covenants as to consent or rights of pre-emption may be imposed in relation to dwelling-houses in the areas designated by this Order that are sold voluntarily under section 32 of the Act.

A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument, as it has no impact on the costs of businesses, charities or voluntary bodies.